Cazenovia town to install LED streetlights, set energy benchmarks in municipal buildings

By Jason Emerson

Editor

The town of Cazenovia will be getting new, energy efficient streetlights and establishing a benchmarking requirement for its municipal buildings in 2017, both of which are part of the town’s continuing efforts to save money and be more energy efficient.

While the streetlights will cost more than $5,000, the payback to the town is expected to occur over a 10-year span with cost savings to occur every year thereafter in town electric bills.

The town may not even have to foot that bill, however, since it is applying for a $100,000 NYSERDA energy grant which can be used for clean energy saving projects throughout the town — such as the LED streetlight conversations, said Councilor Tom Driscoll.

The streetlight conversions and benchmarking initiative, added to the town’s previous green achievements of building a hydroplant in New Woodstock and passing new solar power regulation legislation (as part of the Solarize CNY initiative), are in fact what has led the town to be eligible to apply for the grant.

“This is a great program that shows Cazenovia will once again be a leader in green technology,” Supervisor Bill Zupan said during the town board’s Dec. 12 regular monthly meeting, during which the programs were announced and unanimously approved by the town board.

The town’s plan to convert its high-pressure sodium (HPS) luminary streetlamps to the Light Emitting Diode (LED) green technology will be done through the CNY Bright Lights program initiative, which is funded by NYSERDA’s Clean Energy Communities program.

The program will include the replacement of 37 HPS streetlights with LED technology at locations within the town of Cazenovia. The town board determined the program would benefit the municipality after receiving a cost-benefit analysis of such a conversion by the CNY Regional Planning and Development Board that showed an annual savings to the town of over $700, with a total savings, assuming a 25-year life span for the LED lights, of up to $18,000.

Thirty-five of the 37 converted streetlights would be located within the hamlet of New Woodstock, said Town Highway Superintendent Tim Hunt. The other two would be in the town: one at West Lake Road and Route 92, and the other at Bethel Road and Route 92, he said.

National Grid — which owns the lights, and from whom the town is leasing them — will do all the conversion installation and any subsequent maintenance, Hunt said. There currently is no specific timeline for when the installations will occur, but Cazenovia is on National Grid’s list as the second municipality installed, after they complete installations in Minoa, Hunt said.

“LED so much better; they don’t blow as often, they last longer, it’s a better light,” Hunt said. “In the state police barracks in New Woodstock [recently constructed by the town] every light is LED, even the exterior lights — what a difference.”

The board resolution approved the streetlight replacement program at a cost not to exceed $10,000, although Zupan said it will likely cost less than $7,500.

The energy benchmarking initiative that the board established was created as a way to understand the energy performance of municipal buildings relative to similar buildings nationwide and therefore allow the town board to make “smarter, more cost effective operational and capital investment decisions, reward efficiency and drive widespread, continuous improvement,” according to the resolution.

Under the new policy, municipal buildings that are 1,000 square feet in size or larger, and are covered with a roof, shall have their energy usage measured, tracked over time and compared for performance to similar buildings. The energy usage to be tracked will include electricity, natural gas, steam, hot or chilled water, fuel oil, or other product for use in a building, or renewable on-site electricity generation, for purposes of providing heating, cooling, lighting, water heating, or for powering or fueling other end-uses in the building and related facilities, as reflected in utility bills or other documentation of actual energy use, according to the policy.

The benchmarking information will be collected twice a year, in May and December, submitted to the town board and made available to the public.

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Village of Caz also investigating streetlight conversions, green energy upgrades

The village of Cazenovia for over one year has been investigating the potential energy benefits and cost savings of converting its streetlights to LED technology as well, but it is consulting with a private company, SmartWatt, to do the work rather than working through National Grid. The village also has 284 streetlights to convert, at an estimated cost of more than $600,000 — and with an estimated payback to the village of $1.2 million over 20 years — so its potential project is on a much larger scale than the town’s.

In November, the village board agreed to proceed with an energy audit of the municipality by SmartWatt, at a cost of $10,000, to map out all the energy-saving work to include in the project. This work would include not only streetlight conversions but also heating and air conditioning improvements, window and door sealing improvements in municipal buildings, and other work.

The final project will require financing, which the village expects to last 10 years.

“The anticipated energy cost savings will pay for the energy improvements, the finance costs and there will still be a net overall annual savings for the village,” said Trustee David Porter, who  spearheads the village’s green energy initiatives. “At the completion of the audit, we will work with SmartWatt to select the energy savings measures to pursue, in addition to the LED street light conversion project.”

Updates on the potential project will be given at future village board meetings.